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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions.
This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization.
Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

Wildlife biologist explains upswing in bear cub encounters

A black bear cub surveys his surroundings before bounding into the woods off Stevens Street in Queensbury on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. Queensbury Animal Control Officer Jim Fitzgerald said the cub and sow had been eating apples in a yard before getting spooked and split up, with the sow going into the woods and the cub up the tree.

QUEENSBURY -- Jim Fitzgerald has been Queensbury animal control officer for four years, and up until this fall had never dealt with a black bear complaint.

For the last two months, though, he’s dealt with one bear issue after another, focusing mainly on small cubs that have been wandering parking lots, school fields and back yards since late September.
“It’s been six weeks of constant bear calls,” he said Monday
.

Ed Reed, a senior wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said a number of factors have contributed to the high number of bear cubs being visible in populated areas this fall. Female bears, known as sows, had more cubs than usual last spring because they were very healthy in light of a bumper crop of natural food in the woods in 2011, Reed said. Some sows had three or four cubs when they normally have one or two.“All of the sows were healthy and they had a lot of cubs,” he said.

So those additional cubs have had to fight for food this year during dry conditions where natural food crops like berries and beech nuts were way down. Cubs often stay with their mothers through their first year and find dens with them during their first winter, but as many as half do leave her side and head out on their own when less than a year old, Reed said.

With a lack of food this year, though, many will have a tough time making it through the winter.
The rise in bear sightings in more populated areas has been noticed around the state as well.
“It’s a region-wide issue and other regions have been dealing with it too,” Reed said.

Adirondack black bears typically start looking for winter dens by mid-November, Reed said. Even young cubs can generally find dens on their own and survive winter provided they are healthy enough and have enough fat reserves to make it through a several-month hibernation.

Two Massachusetts Eastern Coyotes at their den site

Eastern Wolf in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

Aldo Leopold--3 quotes from his SAN COUNTY ALMANAC

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

Aldo Leopold

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Aldo Leopold

''To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering."

Wildlife Rendezvous

Like so many conscientious hunters and anglers come to realize, good habitat with our full suite of predators and prey make for healthy and productive living............Teddy Roosevelt depicted at a "WILDLIFE RENDEZVOUS"

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This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time…I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. This blog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of my various thoughts and opinions, and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today. All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. Rick Meril and WWW.COYOTES-WOLVES-COUGARS.COM make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.